If you recognize some of the names in the band, you'll know that right off the bat this is one talented project that has been put together by guitarist Stephan Forte. The names Elegy, Majestic and Pink Cream 69 should come to mind as Bruinenberg, Anderssen and Readman hail from those bands respectively. One of the surprise discs of 2001, Adagio was either heralded as a great, or passed off as a Symphony X clone. Those who chose not to see the talent in this band quickly dismissed it as a clone of Symphony X and moved on. Those left talked about the disc for many months as a welcome neo-classically based piece of metal with the vocals of Readman capturing the ears and the guitar work of Forte respected.

The music is neo-classically driven with majestic (no pun intended) keyboards and speedy drums and led by the incredibly fresh vocals of Readman who really makes a statement in this project unlike what he normally does in Pink Cream 69. Realistically, if you take the bands that these musicians represent and combine them all, you have a pretty good idea of where Adagio comes from. The guitars and keyboards lead the neo-classical sound around the speedy, chopped tempo of Elegy-style drums, and the vocals are certainly reminiscent of a less powerful version of Russell Allen (Symphony X) but with all of their own styles and influences mixed in to create this nice piece of symphonic metal.

The production captures what the band is all about, although personally I prefer a heavier mix for this type of music. Just a bit more bass would have rocked the house down a bit more and brought the music into the realm of epic sounds. The sound is well mixed however, with a slightly higher end dominating. The songs range in various lengths, the monster being the 11:42 "Seven Lands of Sin" which cannot be dismissed as anything but great. The guitar playing alone is enough for fans of the genre to want to seek this disc out. A nice vocal-less cover of Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" ends the disc almost leaving the listener wishing for one more Adagio song. It's well done, but certainly unnecessary for a band of this talent.

Overall, this is a well-done piece of music and should not be overlooked by anyone into the neo-classical / progressive metal genre.